Philadelphia (film)

Director Jonathan Demme (1944-    )

Date Released on December 23, 1993

This groundbreaking film dealt openly with homophobia and discrimination and was one of the first motion pictures to deal with HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

The film Philadelphia was written by Ron Nyswaner, who based the screenplay partly on the story of Geoffrey Bowers, an attorney who, after having been wrongfully terminated in 1987 from his law firm, Baker and McKenzie, filed one of the earliest AIDS-discrimination lawsuits. In the film, Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a young, successful lawyer trying to live a normal life despite having recently been diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Since he works for a very conservative law firm and an openly homophobic boss, the University of Pennsylvania graduate has kept his sexual orientation (and his partner) secret from his friends and colleagues. Unfortunately, when his disease begins to become apparent to his colleagues, Beckett finds that any goodwill he might have enjoyed among them has vanished and he is no longer welcome. His work on a major case is sabotaged, leading to his prompt dismissal from the firm. Angered by his callous treatment, Beckett decides to sue his company for illegal dismissal, lost earnings, and punitive damages, but he is shocked to discover that none of the attorneys he approaches are willing to take an AIDS patient as a client. Only Joe Miller, played by Denzel Washington, is willing to give Beckett a chance to take his case to court.

Their case is not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination. Over time, both individuals come to respect each other’s tenacity. Miller’s task—to prove that Beckett has been fired solely because of his homosexuality and HIV status—is difficult because of the inherently controversial nature of Beckett’s disease. Further, the partners of Beckett’s firm prove themselves only too willing to defame their former colleague and openly lie on the stand. Fortunately, their perjury does not, ultimately, sway the opinion of the jury; the firm is ordered to pay Beckett $140,000 in back pay, $100,000 for pain and suffering, and $4 million in punitive damages even as he, suffering the final ravages of his disease, lies dying.

Impact

Philadelphia was not the first film to deal with the treatment of AIDS sufferers in mainstream society—the made-for-television movie And the Band Played On (based on the 1987 book by Randy Shilts), starring Alan Alda and Matthew Modine, had previously been released in 1993—but it was equally groundbreaking in its realistic depictions of homosexual characters. Hanks won an Academy Award for Best Actor, and Bruce Springsteen earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song for“Streets of Philadelphia.” Philadelphia was part of a general trend in the 1990’s toward increased visibility of homosexuality in television, film, and the media.

Bibliography

Cante, Richard C. “Afterthoughts from Philadelphia . . . and Somewhere Else.” In Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary U.S. Culture. London: Ashgate, 2008.

Harty, K. J. “The Failures of Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia.” Four Quarters 8, no. 1 (Spring, 1994): 13-20.